Russia mulls higher divorce fees to prevent ill-fated unions

Wed Sep 25 06:25:04 EST 2013

Russia's prime minister Dmitry Medvedev has backed a proposal to make divorce far more expensive as a way of discouraging ill-considered matches.

"The motives (for the suggestion) are understandable: switch on your brain when you're getting married, otherwise there's going to be material penalties," the prime minister said in comments aired on state media.

Mr Medvedev, who served as Russia's president between 2008 and 2012, was commenting on a proposal submitted by senators that would increase the state fees for divorce to almost 30,000 rubles ($1,000), a huge rise from the current charge of 400 rubles ($13.40).

Costly divorce cases are relatively rare in Russia, which has one of the world's most lenient divorce procedures, with couples able to annul their marriages out of court in a single procedure at a wedding office.

In cases where the divorce is contested, relatively little justification is required.

Karina Krasnova, a lawyer from the company Russian Divorce, said: "In Russia the situation is very favourable for divorce. It's much cheaper because you can do it independently, because you'd don't need lawyers."

Some, including Mr Medvedev, have suggested that this easy-going regime, a legacy of the Soviet Union, promotes a cavalier attitude towards matrimony, leading to high rates of divorce.

According to a global UN survey, Russia has the 15th highest female divorce rate and the 28th highest for men.

The Soviet Union was one of the first countries in the world to allow "no-fault" divorce requiring no justification for splitting, as the Communist state sought to destroy what it considered the bourgeois construct of the family.

In the 1930s, 40 per cent of Soviet marriages ended in divorce.

Joseph Stalin later reversed this policy, but divorce remained relatively straightforward.

The discussion on reducing family break-ups coincides with a campaign by the Russian government to encourage more conservative family values in keeping with those traditionally promoted by the Russian Orthodox Church.

Parents call for ban on Elton John concert

Monday's proposal echoed a suggestion made earlier this year by controversial deputy Yelena Mizulina, an author of the "gay propaganda" law that made it legal to ban events that could be seen as promoting homosexuality to minors.

Meanwhile, a Russian parents' committee has asked president Vladimir Putin to cancel a planned concert by gay musician Elton John, saying he intended to violate the ban on homosexual "propaganda".

In an open letter to Mr Putin, the local parents' group in central Ural region was reported by media as saying: "The singer intends to come out in support of local sodomites and break the current Russian law, directed at protecting children."

Critics say the law banning gay "propaganda" among minors - which has prompted calls for a boycott of Russia's hosting of the 2014 Winter Olympics - is discriminatory, barring people from being open about their sexual orientation.

The law is part of a broader attempt by Mr Putin to win over Russians in the mostly conservative country following protests against his rule among urban and often middle class voters over his return to the Kremlin last May.

Sir Elton, who reminisced in an interview earlier this month with the Guardian newspaper of having sex on a Moscow rooftop with a translator during his 1979 Soviet Union tour, said he wanted to perform in Russia to support the gay community.

"As a gay man, I can't leave those people on their own without going over there and supporting them. I don't know what's going to happen, but I've got to go," he said in the interview.

Sir John will perform on December 6 in Moscow and December 7 in Kazan.